comedyrelief wrote:
My point is that the talent pool that competes in ultras is extremely shallow. There is no way you can put a Jornet or a Walmsley on the level of a Kipchoge, a Rupp, a Farah, etc. It is not even close in terms of quality or quantity of competitors. The best Walmsley ever did as a collegian was 38th fastest steeple chase runner in the US in 2012. To claim he is better than the 37 other steeplers who ran faster than him that year, let alone all of the 1500 runners, 5000 runners, 10000 runners, etc. is foolish. I will amend my earlier statement of 50 and revise to hundreds of collegians that graduate from the NCAA each year are capable of doing what he is doing at ultras, they just choose to do something more productive with their time / life.
This is a dumb argument. Kipchoge is not the PR at Western State until he actually runs it. Being the WR marathoner is no (ZERO) indication he would break Walmsleys recent record at 1430. Maybe at mile 70 Kipchoge would have an extreme breakdown and mentally lose it.